A team of Belgian scientists excavated an important fossil off of Peru´s southern coast in the province of Ica. Specifically, the scientists uncovered a fossil bearing the skeleton of the Mystacodon selensis, an ancient whale.

This discovery is groundbreaking for paleontologists, because it the oldest known relative of the baleen whale ever found, at 36.4 million years old. Baleen whales are subset of the whale species that includes blue whales and humpback whales.

Futhermore, the whale fossil is the first relative to the baleen whale (more…)

A Peruvian farmer is helping fight climate change in his community, by creating an organic fertilizer. The farmer, Jammer Vega, is just 17 years old and lives in the San Martín region of Peru.

After seeing firsthand the effects of climate change on his fellow cocoa farmers, Vega decided to take action. Therefore, he developed BIOL, a fertilizer made completely from biodegradable plant material and water.

BIOL is better for the environment than most fertilizers because it saves water and helps the root systems of the coca plant to grow. (more…)

The future looks bright for Peru´s coffee industry. After years of being plagued by the insidious disease, coffee rust, Peru´s coffee crops have finally returned to health and seem better than ever.

Many Peruvians depend heavily on the success of the coffee plant as their source of livelihood. Unfortunately, during the years of hardship, around 250,000 families found themselves in tough times, as around 60% of the coffee crops were destroyed.

However, in 2017 this hardship seems almost distant. This year alone, Peru´s coffee industry is predicted to see a 20% growth. (more…)

Pre-Incan artifacts were recently discovered in province of Cajamarca by a group of tourists visiting the Ilucan Hill.

What the tourists found was 100 different pieces of metal that seemed to belong a certain collection. The tourists then handed over these artifacts to the Municipality of Cutervo.

These pieces of metal were confirmed to be pre-incan gold by the Peruvian archaeologist, Walter Alva. Alva marveled at the fact that the pieces were not only original, but very well preserved as well. (more…)

Justin Bieber donated to flood victims in Peru when he came to Lima to give a concert early last month. The show was a stop on his international Purpose tour and had over 30,000 people in attendence.

Bieber asked concert-goers to bring donations of things like non-perishable food items, bottled water, blankets, etc. to his show on April 5th. These donations were then delivered to victims in the small village of El Tigre near San Vicente de Cañete, a coastal city located 144 km south of Lima, in a region that was deeply affected by the floods. (more…)

Peru won the award ¨Best Destination in the Americas¨ at the 2017 Shanghai World Travel Fair. The Shanghai World Travel Fair is widely recognized as one the most important travel fairs in all of China.

Tour operators, travel agencies, airlines, hotels, and other business in the tourism sector from over 55 different countries took part in the 2017 Shanghair World Travel Fair.

The selection of the awards was done by the event organizers and was given to Peru, largely for the work the country´s tourism industry is doing to attract more visitors from places like China. (more…)

An increase in visitor numbers is expected at Machu Picchu with the new change in the visiting hours of Machu Picchu, starting July 1st of this year. These new changes give visitors two set times to enter: one in the morning from 6:00am-12:00pm, and the other in the afternoon from 12:00pm-5:30pm.

Currently, the average number of daily visitors to the site is between 3,000 and 3,200 people per day. However, during the high season, sometimes this number can creep up to more than 4,000 people.

The new schedule will better allow for up to 5,000 visitors to enter the site per day. (more…)

Peru has been nominated for an important travel award. More specifically, Peru has actually been nominated for 41 different categories for the 2017 World Travel Awards in South America.

Of these 41 categories in which Peru was nominated, 31 of Peru´s nominations are for specific businesses in the private sector. Namely, businesses that have to do with tourism such as hotels, tour agencies, etc.

The rest of the nominations concern Peru as a destination. For example, Peru has been nominated for awards in the categories (more…)

Swiss and Peruvian students are now working together to help beat pneumonia in Peru. Together, these students have created a mobile phone application that helps to diagnose pneumonia in its early stages.

Out in Peru´s countryside, pneumonia is a still a very common illness in children. For these remote communities, pneumonia is very difficult to treat because there are no nearby hospitals and generally their local clinics are under-funded and under-staffed.

This is what spurred the idea behind the app, the result of the collaborations between students from ETH Zurich (more…)

Several tribal leaders from the Peruvian Amazon recently joined Leonardo DiCaprio in the United States to take part in the People´s Climate March.

Before the march, DiCaprio met with the different tribal leaders to discuss climate change and to pose for photos. It seemed that both the tribes and DiCaprio were honored to have the chance to meet one another.

For example, DiCaprio posted photos with each one of the tribal leaders to his Twitter account. One of the tribal members, Ronald Suarez, leader of the Shipibo-Konibo-Xetebo tribe (more…)

Machu Picchu, on of the seven world wonders and most important tourist destination of Peru, will be changing its visiting hours starting in July of this year. From July 1st on, the famous archaeological site will be offering entrance for tourists in two set time slots.

Tourists in Peru will now be admitted in the morning between 6:00 am and 12:00 pm, or in the afternoon from 12:00 pm to 5:30 pm.

These changes will be reflected in the tickets sold and reserved after the 1st of June. All other tickets purchased before then will follow the current schedule (which is the complete day, until 5.00 pm). (more…)

Despite the floods that devastating the country earlier this year, Peru has seen growth in their agricultural exports. This is largely because the Peruvian government has been trying to rebuild and keep up with the current demand for agricultural exports.

Last year, Peru´s agricultural exports totaled 5.5 billion in US dollars. If current trends continue, this number will come to 10 billion by the end of this year.

Moreover, all of these predications have been done with the acknowledgement that much of Peru´s cultivatable land is still not being used. (more…)